**National Council on Disability**

An independent federal agency making recommendations to the President and Congress 

to enhance the quality of life for all Americans with disabilities and their families.

**National Council on Disability**

**Performance and Accountability ReportFiscal Year 2014**

# Table of Contents

# Introduction

Report Purpose1

Report Organization1

Message from the Chair2

# Management’s Discussion and Analysis

History5

Organization5

Mission, Vision, Goals and Objectives7

Agency Mission Challenges7

Performance Measurement Methodology8

Performance Highlights9

Financial Highlights17

**Management Assurances and Analysis of Controls, Systems and Legal Compliance**

Implementation of Federal Manager’s Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) at NCD21

Legal Compliance23

Chair’s FMFIA Statement of Assurance25

# Performance Section

Performance Framework26

Performance Measurement Challenge30

Program Activities & Performance Results by Strategic Objectives31

# Financial Section

Message from the Executive Director51

Independent Auditor’s Report

Principal Financial Statements

Notes to the Financial Statements

# Appendix A – Listing of Abbreviations and Acronyms

# Report Purpose

The National Council on Disability’s (NCD) Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) provides the results of the agency’s program and financial performance and demonstrates to the Congress, the President, and the public NCD’s commitment to its mission and accountability over the resources entrusted to it.

This report includes information that satisfies the reporting requirements contained in the following legislation:

· Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act of 1982

· Government Performance and Results Act of 1993

· Government Management Reform Act of 1994

· Reports Consolidation Act of 2000

· Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002

· Improper Payments Information Act of 2002

· GPRA Modernization Act of 2010

# Report Organization

# 1. Management’s Discussion and Analysis - Provides an overview of NCD’s mission and organization, mission challenges, performance measurement methodology, key performance measures and efficiency measures, performance highlights, alignment of NCD costs and goals, financial highlights, and management assurances on internal control and financial systems.

# 2. Performance Section – Explains NCD’s performance relative to its strategic goals and objectives, and includes an overview on how performance data are verified and validated.

# 3. Financial Section – Provides financial details, including the independent auditors report and audited financial statements with accompanying notes.

**Message from the Chairperson**

On behalf of the members of the National Council on Disability (NCD or the Council), I am pleased to submit the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Performance and Accountability Report (PAR). The Council received an unqualified opinion from its independent auditors on its FY 2014 annual financial statements. 

The Council is working intensely with technical and contractual support from the General Services Administration to improve and further strengthen our internal agency operations and fiscal management.    Additionally, NCD is also implementing best practice procedures in accordance with guidance from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the AICPA Audit Committee Effectiveness Center. 

During the course of FY2014, the Council began implementing the policies and procedures listed in the financial procedural manual facilitated under the leadership of the Audit and Finance Committee and reviewed by external government partners for additional input. In FY2015, the same quality work will be conducted on the Council’s Administrative Policy manual to bring this document up to the standards required by the federal government. 

The Audit & Finance Committee and the Executive Committee have reviewed and approved the Council’s Corrective Action Plan (incorporated in this document) to make decisive action to improve internal controls, IT security, and overall oversight as we move into FY2015. We have also worked with GSA to refine the requirements and duties of a financial analyst to further strengthen our internal operations.  

As the Council moved to fill our vacant positions in FY2014, we partnered with GSA in obtaining recommended contractual support to carry out these functions in the interim to ensure continuity of operations and improve the segregation of duties.

The Council’s role as an independent advisor on disability matters to the President and Congress is essential to assuring the Federal government is well informed and qualified to perform their duties and effectively serve the public, including individuals with disabilities. NCD carries out its mission to promote equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency for people with disabilities of all ages and backgrounds by: (1) continually reviewing disability programs and policies, (2) meeting with people with disabilities and other stakeholders around the country to learn about on-the-ground realities, and (3) providing advice, analysis and recommendations on disability policy to the President, Congress, and other federal agencies. NCD’s analysis and recommendations have led to enactment of important laws and other improvements to the programs and services provided by the many federal agencies that serve the disability community. NCD’s most notable achievement is drafting and recommending the Americans with Disabilities Act.

During FY 2014, the Council extended its engagement in several substantive areas that contributed to the nation’s progress toward achieving the goals of equality of opportunity, independent living, full participation, and economic self-sufficiency for all people with disabilities. 

These efforts have been undertaken as effective stewards of limited fiscal resources and included addressing the needs of people who have acquired disabilities, measuring the accessibility of polling places, promoting innovation in health care and fairness in the implementation of managed care. Additionally we are proud to continue our efforts in promoting effective communication fully accessible to all people with disabilities throughout all phases of emergency management.

The Council hosted several policy forums on Medicaid managed care implementation across the country and partnered with the White House on several initiatives promoting new leaders in the disability community and addressing issues of mental health reform. In addition, during the course of the fiscal year NCD released a series of reports, papers, and letters including:

**Reports:**

· Effective Communications for People with Disabilities: Before, During, and After Emergencies

· Experience of Voters with Disabilities in the 2012 Election Cycle

· Clearing the Backlog and Facilitating Benefits for Veterans with Disabilities

· NCD Education Forum Report: U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

· Progress Report on Tribal Consultation Coordination

· Language Access Plan Implementation Annual Report

**Statements:**

· Statement on the CRPD 

· Statement on the “Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder among Children Aged 8 Years” report by the Center for Disease Control

· Statement on the Lyndon B. Johnson Library Civil Rights Act 50th Anniversary Event

· Statement in recognition of National Foster Care Month

· Statement on the 15th anniversary of the Olmstead decision

· Statement on the passing of Senator Jim Jeffords

· Statement of solidarity with the victims of police violence in Ferguson, MO

· Statement on the passing of Mary Ann Mobley Collins

· Statement on “Stand Your Ground” laws

**Letters:**

· Letter to Senate Finance Committee in support of amendment language regarding supported employment

· Letter to House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness regarding Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) bill

· Letter to President Obama regarding mental health funding

· Letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee reaffirming its strong support of ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

· Letter to Vice President Biden regarding the CRPD

· Letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) about an amendment to Kancare Medicaid, Section 1115

· Letter to the Department of Justice on an investigation of Title II Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations in Rhode Island

· Letter to the President and Labor Secretary Tom Perez on the minimum wage Executive Order

· Letter to the President and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the FY2015 Budget

· Letter to Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey about the claims backlog

· Letter to Washington state Representative Roger Freeman in support of state parenting rights bill

· Letter to Education Secretary Duncan about students with 504 plans, and the school-to-prison pipeline

· Letter to the Food and Drug Administration on taking action against Judge Rotenberg Center

· Letter to the House/ Senate conference on the Workforce Investment Act

· Letter to House Speaker Boehner encouraging a House vote on the ABLE Act

· Letter to National Children’s Study about the design of the National Children’s Study and implications for the generalizability of results

· Letter to U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Shah regarding humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine

· Letter to Defense Secretary Hagel regarding humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine

· Letter to Department of Labor regarding the implementation of the “Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to Domestic Service” final rule

· Letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee with recommendations for the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2013

The Council released its Annual Progress Report in the fall of 2013, in accordance with NCD’s authorizing statute:  National Disability Policy:  A Progress Report.

NCD is proud of its successful efforts in promoting equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic sufficiency for all individuals with disabilities, of all ages, throughout the country. I want to express my profound appreciation for the hard work and dedication of NCD’s Members and staff, who continued to make important policy contributions while simultaneously addressing concerns raised in last year’s audit. We remain steadfast in our commitment to carrying out our responsibilities in working with the President, the Congress and each level of local, state and federal agencies to accomplish our nation’s vision of valuing and respecting each member of our society. 

Sincerely,

Jeff Rosen, Chairperson

History

National Council on Disability (NCD) (www.ncd.gov) is an independent federal agency that advances full inclusion, independence, and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. NCD was initially established in 1978 as an advisory board within the U.S. Department of Education (Public Law 95-602). The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1984 (Public Law 98-221) transformed NCD into an independent agency and required NCD to provide expert advice to Congress and the Administration. Changes were also made to NCD’s statutory mandate by the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1992 and 1998 and the Education of the Deaf Act Technical Amendments of 1993. 

NCD’s governing body is the Council, which is currently comprised of 15 Presidential appointees, including a Chair, whom the President appoints, and a Vice Chair, determined by the Chair.  With the recent passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (Public Law 113-128), Council Membership will be composed of nine members, including five members appointed by the President of the United States and four members appointed by the leadership of Congress, including one member appointed by each of the following: the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader.  

Council Members live across the country and each brings a unique perspective informed by varied personal and professional experiences. Council Members are people with disabilities, disability service providers, parents or family members of people with disabilities, or other people who have substantial knowledge of or experience with disability policies and programs. Council Members are appointed to represent people with disabilities, national organizations concerned with disabilities, providers and administrators of services to people with disabilities, people engaged in conducting medical or scientific research related to disabilities, business concerns and labor organizations. The majority of the current Council Members are people with disabilities.

As the governing body, Council Members establish NCD’s priorities and budget, and monitor and provide oversight of NCD’s programs, operations and finances. The Council’s oversight responsibilities are organized and led by a six-member Executive and Finance Committee, consisting of the Chairperson of the Council; the two Co-Vice Chairs of the Council; and three Council Member principals for finance, governance and policy. The Chairperson of the Council also serves as the Chairperson of the Executive and Finance Committee. NCD also has a Policy Committee that proposes NCD policy priorities for discussion.

The Chairperson appoints an Executive Director and evaluates the Executive Director’s performance.

**Organization**

NCD’s Executive Director serves as the chief executive of the agency and has full responsibility for managing the agency to accomplish the mission, and the goals and objectives established by legislation or Council members. When fully staffed, NCD has 13 full-time employees, organized into three teams:

· **Policy & Legal Team -**The Policy & Legal Team analyzes federal laws, regulations, programs, policies and case law precedent; and proposes and develops NCD policy positions that have a national, state and international impact on the lives of people with disabilities.

· **Legislative Affairs & Outreach Team -**The Legislative Affairs & Outreach Team analyzes proposed legislation and monitors congressional activity on issues critical to the disability community; cultivates and maintains relationships with NCD’s diverse stakeholders at the federal, state and local levels; and promotes NCD’s policy positions through a variety of mediums.

· **Administrative Operations Team -**The Administrative Operations Team provides staff support and monitors the agency's finance and accounting, information technology, and human resources management.

# Mission, Vision, Goals & Objectives

NCD has a unique mission among federal agencies because it is charged with reviewing all programs and policies across the Federal Government, not merely one aspect of policy affecting people with disabilities. 

# Agency Mission Challenges

NCD is a micro-agency, and  with a current budget of $3.2 million, 15 part-time Council Members (reducing to nine after the effective date of the WIOA), and 13 full-time staff when fully staffed, NCD has adopted a strategy of working in conjunction with a wide range of stakeholders – including people with disabilities, federal, state and local agencies, elected officials and their staff, universities, and a diverse group of non-profit organizations and individual disability policy experts and advocates – to leverage and steward resources while advancing our mission, goals and objectives. 

NCD’s strategic objectives of engagement and policy development can be quantifiably measured by the number of people that attend our forums, regularly engage with us via social media, download and read our policy reports, and adopt or promote our recommendations. However, measuring NCD’s impact on its strategic goal of guaranteeing equal opportunity and providing for economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society for individuals with disabilities is far more subjective since these are systemic endeavors in which NCD is part of a community of agencies, advocates and others seeking to secure such outcomes. Accordingly, NCD’s analysis of the relationships of program outputs (such as forums and reports) to tangible outcomes impacting our stakeholders requires a multi-year horizon.   

NCD is continually working to identify better mechanisms for measuring outcomes and reporting achievements. This includes increased efforts to gather and report personal stories of where our engagement or policy initiatives provided a tipping point toward improving the lives of people with disabilities. The Performance Highlights portion of the Management’s Discussion and Analysis section presents specific stories and comments from impacted stakeholders and a case study of how engagement and policy converged into positive outcomes.

# Performance Management Methodology

NCD utilizes the following performance management methodology to set priorities, allocate resources, and evaluate results.

As previously mentioned, measuring NCD’s impact on its strategic goal of guaranteeing equal opportunity and providing for economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society for individuals with disabilities is challenging since these are large-scale, long-term endeavors. 

Accordingly, as we evaluate performance measurements, key measures, targets and outcomes, we ask:

· Has NCD identified critical needs where our engagement with stakeholders and policy development and collaboration can advance existing initiatives?

· Can NCD be a thought leader, performing important research and analysis on critical topics?

· Can NCD provide practical, timely policy recommendations and consultations to Members of Congress and the Executive Branch? 

# Performance Highlights

NCD’s meaningful accomplishments in the last fiscal year that advanced its mission, vision, strategic goals, and strategic objectives included engaging stakeholders to learn about critical issues; conducting independent, objective, fact-based research and analyses of issues; publishing reports with policy recommendations and questions for consideration by policymakers; and finally reengaging stakeholders on the issues to monitor progress. A recent proud example of this integrated engagement and policy-development process at work is NCD’s sustained efforts to ensure the rights of parents with disabilities.

***Parents with Disabilities and Their Families***On July 25, 2014, NCD, utilizing its statutory authority to receive testimony, convened a congressional forum on the status of parents with disabilities and their families.  Through the invited testimony of several panels, comprised of policy and practice experts; parents and their children; and state legislators; as well as the questions asked of the panels by the NCD Council Members, the forum highlighted the barriers people with disabilities face in creating and maintaining strong families and examined what policy measures are either underway or are needed to address the persistent barriers experienced by people with disabilities when attempting to exercise their fundamental and cherished right to parent. In response to NCD’s regular outreach to federal partners since the issuance of NCD’s 2012 *Rocking the Cradle* report on the topic, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division informed NCD just before its forum that over the next year, DOJ will be developing technical assistance guidance to educate state dependency courts and child welfare agencies about their obligations under the ADA related to parents with disabilities and their families. They will also be looking into possible enforcement actions to protect and vindicate parents’ rights.

Other examples of NCD’s FY2014 integrated policy development and engagement: 

***Emergency Communications***In May 2014, NCD released a report examining the accessibility of communication before, during and after emergencies for people with sensory disabilities (deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low-vision, deaf-blind and speech disabilities) as well as people with intellectual, developmental and/or psychiatric disabilities. In the report, NCD documented successful practices and barriers to effective emergency communications. 

This study, released during National Hurricane Preparedness Week, was conducted to help emergency planners and state and local officials provide effective communication to people with disabilities before, during, and after emergencies and was enthusiastically received by regional and state emergency managers. NCD held a policy briefing on the findings of the report on Capitol Hill, which was well-attended by congressional staff of committees of jurisdiction over the topics discussed in the report. The report continues the strong history of timely policy work the Council has done in the area of emergency management since 2003.  In 2007, NCD was provided additional Congressional appropriations to continue investing in this area of work as a part of the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act (PKEMRA). 

***Minimum Wage***

In January, at word of an impending Executive Order extending a $10.10 minimum wage per hour to workers under service or concessions contracts with the Federal Government, NCD called on the Administration to specifically include individuals with disabilities who are currently paid less than minimum wage under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, in the Executive Order. Soon after, the Administration issued the Executive Order, which specifically included these individuals.  The Executive Order (E.O. 13658) states: 

*“Under current law, workers whose productivity is affected because of their disabilities may be paid less than the wage paid to others doing the same job under certain specialized certificate programs. Under this Executive Order, all individuals working under service or concessions contracts with the federal government will be covered by the same $10.10 per hour minimum wage protections.”*

NCD hopes this marks a step toward the eventual legislative elimination of the Section 14(c) provision, which the agency views, as “a relic” of the 1930’s when it was assumed that people with disabilities could not work. (In 2012, NCD released a report on subminimum wage and supported employment, which contains more detail on NCD’s recommendations in this area). 

***Medicaid Managed Care***Beginning in December 2013 and continuing through the duration of FY 2014, NCD collaborated with federal agency representatives and disability leadership stakeholders to obtain input in the planning and implementation of Medicaid managed care through a series of five community forums in federal fiscal year 2013-2014 which were held in Topeka, KS; Tallahassee, FL; Chicago, IL; Sacramento, CA; and New York, NY,  promoting stakeholder engagement with federal and state officials. The forums featured facilitated discussion of experiences, preferences and desired outcomes for Medicaid managed care as described by disability leadership; federal and state agency representatives, health plans, and providers. At the forums, NCD was able promote the Medicaid managed care principles outlined in the NCD report, “Medicaid Managed Care for People with Disabilities.” 

In August, NCD’s issue session proposal on Medicaid managed care and people with disabilities was accepted for presentation at the National Conference of State Legislatures, and approximately 150 state legislators attended the session to learn from the panel about how to roll out managed care in their home states so as to best deliver services in a manner consistent with *Olmstead v. L.C.*and the goals of the ADA. 

**Outreach Metrics**

Throughout FY 2014, NCD has improved measurement of outputs and outcomes. This includes more formal tracking of engagement activities at forums, website usage, social media, and collecting personal stories of how NCD’s work has benefited people with disabilities. NCD reached hundreds of thousands of people in FY 2014 through Council meetings, speaking engagements, panel discussions, roundtables, listening sessions and media coverage of NCD’s policy work. NCD’s website received approximately 404,000 unique visitors in the last fiscal year – over 1,100 a day and an increase of 40% over the previous fiscal year. NCD offers its research publications in multiple formats online and continued observing a pattern of tens of thousands of downloads of its policy reports from domestic and international sources. NCD’s most popular three policy publications, according to the number of report views, were *The Current State of Health Care for People with Disabilities*(FY08); the *Rocking the Cradle* report (FY13) on the rights of parents with disabilities; and *Effective Emergency Management* (FY10).  In addition, NCD reaches several thousand people through its official agency list serve, its Facebook page, and Twitter accounts. NCD’s Facebook account is “liked” by over 15,000 (60% increase over FY13) individuals, and NCD’s Twitter account, from which NCD live-tweets disability-focused legislative hearings and briefings, has 5,489 followers. In addition, national media has continued to include statements of NCD staff and Council Members in reports on a variety of disability-related news, often yielding repeated requests of NCD for specific topics, including parenting rights, the abuse of people with disabilities, and subminimum wage. 

**Performance Highlights: Goals, Measures & Activities**

**Performance Highlights: Real Life Stories**

Below are some testimonials from individuals who engaged with NCD in FY 2014 at an event or responded to one of the agency’s policy reports:

The Performance Section presents the agency’s performance in Fiscal Year 2014, the third year of its five-year Strategic Plan, which can be read in its entirety at: http://www.ncd.gov/Accountability/strategicplan/. This section also includes a discussion of strategies and factors affecting performance, the relationship of outputs to outcomes, a summary of methods used to verify and validate performance data, and performance results by strategic goal and strategic objectives.

# Financial Highlights

NCD received an increase in funding in FY 2014 due to Government-wide sequestration. Year over year changes in financial position, results of operations and key budgetary accounts are summarized below. NCD continues to implement cost cutting measures while increasing performance and productivity. 

Management is working to improve and refine NCD’s fiscal management in concert with GSA technical assistance and support services. Major efforts have been initiated in FY 2014 to better define strategy in a strategic plan, streamline to strategic goals, develop more effective measures for strategic objectives, and commence the process for better allocation of costs to program activities to better illustrate alignment of costs and goals. Combined with initial efforts to improve internal controls over contract monitoring and financial reporting, management believes NCD has improved economy and efficiency as well as reliability and usefulness of financial reporting.

**Discussion and Analysis of Financial Statements**

NCD prepares financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for Federal Government entities. The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board has established a framework of integrated budgetary and proprietary reporting. Budgetary reporting addresses appropriations, budget authority, budgetary resources, obligations, undelivered orders and delivered orders. Proprietary reporting is traditional financial reporting of assets, liabilities, net position, and net cost. OMB Circular A-136, *Financial Reporting Requirements*, defines the form and content of financial statements, accompanying notes and supplemental information.

NCD’s financial statements are subject to independent audit to ensure they are free from material misstatement. No material weaknesses were identified in internal control over financial reporting for FY 2014. The financial statements of the National Council on Disability were audited and NCD received an unqualified opion for FY2014.Furthermore, the audit did not identify any deficiencies in internal control.  

**Balance Sheet**

The Balance Sheet presents the total amounts available for use by the Council (assets) against the amounts owed (liabilities) and amounts that comprise the difference (net position). Balance sheets are a snapshot in time (fiscal year end) to an entity’s present financial position.

NCD’s assets (items with future value) are virtually all Fund Balance with Treasury (FBWT), which represents NCD’s cash balances with the U.S. Treasury from which the Council is authorized to make expenditures and pay liabilities from operational activities. FBWT is primarily increased by receiving appropriations and primarily decreased by making expenditures or cancellations of expired appropriations. NCD’s remaining asset amounts consist of trivial accounts receivable and a loan receivable from a retired employee. While NCD owns computer equipment, furniture and leasehold improvements, these items have been fully depreciated or amortized, thus do not appear on the balance sheet as property, plant and equipment.

NCD’s liabilities (what entity owes) are entirely current liabilities (due within one year) and primarily with the public ($317,791) as opposed to intragovernmental ($16,706). At fiscal year ended September 30, 2014, accounts payable with the public were $177,544, as opposed to $340,454. This is primarily a result of improved contract management and accrual process, as well as the recognition of costs in the current year of multiyear contract costs obligated in prior years.

NCD’s net position is a combination of unexpended appropriation and cumulative results of operations. Net position decreased significantly due to the decrease in Fund Balance with Treasury and increase in accounts payable. Management does not believe this change is a meaningful financial measure, and is more reflective of timing differences between years, as unused prior year appropriations expire, and contracting cycles shorten.

**Statement of Net Cost**

The Statement of Net Cost presents the annual cost of operating the Council’s programs on an accrual basis, which means costs are recognized when incurred, not when paid. In contrast, outlays are cash basis costs recognized when paid. The major difference between accrual and cash on NCD’s books are year-end accounts payable accruals and imputed financing costs for employee benefits. Gross costs less any earned revenue is used to arrive at the total net cost of operations. NCD has no earned revenue. NCD’s net costs were $2,650,259 for FY 2014, down 7.5% from FY 2013’s $2,864,127.

**Major Costs in FY 2014 vs. FY 2013**

Personnel costs consistently account for over 50% of NCD’s net costs of operations year over year since the agency is primarily delivering engagement and policy development services, which involve Council members and staff with specialized skills in disability policy. Contractual services consist primarily of private sector research contracts and intergovernmental costs. Rent is for the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC, which houses 9 full time equivalent employees. Travel is related to Council meetings and engagement forums. NCD has budgeted for increases in travel and contractual services in FY 2015.

NCD’s administrative overhead costs consist primarily of intergovernmental costs with federal agency service providers that support independent agencies, leading to cost savings for the agency and the federal government overall. The Council uses the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide accounting, payroll, human resources, facilities management, and legal assistance.  Finally, the Government Printing Office provides printing services to NCD. The services provided by these agencies consume about 10 percent of NCD’s total budget. 

**Statement of Changes in Net Position**

This statement presents in greater detail the net position section of the Balance Sheet, which includes Cumulative Results of Operations and Unexpended Appropriations. The statement identifies the activity that caused the net position to change during the reporting period. The total net position increased by approximately $579,731  for reasons explained above.

**Statement of Budgetary Resources**

The Statement of Budgetary Resources provides information on the source and status of budgetary resources made available to the NCD during the reporting period. It presents the relationship between budget authority and budget outlays, as well as the reconciliation of obligations to total outlays. Total Budgetary Resources and Status of Budgetary Resources for FY 2014 was $2,845,022, a decrease of $412,809 or 13.7%. The decrease results from timing of payments and the expiration of prior year unused appropriations.

**Limitations of the Financial Statements**

The principal financial statements have been prepared to report the financial position and results of operations of the Council, pursuant to the requirements of 31 U.S.C. 3515 (b). While the statements have been prepared from the books and records of the Council in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for federal entities and the formats prescribed by OMB, the statements are in addition to the financial reports used to monitor and control budgetary resources, which are prepared from the same books and records. The statements should be read with the realization that they are for a component of the U.S. Government, a sovereign entity.

NCD has a unique mission among federal agencies because it is charged with reviewing all programs and policies across the federal government, not merely one aspect of policy affecting people with disabilities. While the Council’s independent status allows NCD to provide an unbiased overview of many of those agency services and programs, it is the nature of NCD’s overview and recommendations that make NCD’s work so important in the eyes of those who eventually benefit when those recommendations are acted upon by those who have the power to do so. 

The Council produces information critical to improving the delivery of programs to individuals with disabilities. The Council’s series of reports and papers study a broad array of disability-related laws and programs and has resulted in or documented the need for ongoing changes to many of the services needed to sustain the health and independence of many of our citizens with disabilities.  These reports can be found at http://www.ncd.gov/publications. In addition, as related below, NCD has been given substantial responsibilities for disability-related issues in the nationwide effort to improve emergency preparedness and enhance homeland security.

# Management Assurances and Analysis of Controls, Systems and Legal Compliance

**Implementation of the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) at NCD**

Federal agency managers have a fundamental responsibility to develop and maintain effective internal controls. Effective internal controls help to ensure that programs are managed with integrity and resources are used efficiently and effectively through three objectives: effective and efficient operations, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws and regulations. The safeguarding of assets is a subcomponent of each objective.

NCD management is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal control and financial management systems that meet the objectives of the *Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) of 1982*as implemented by OMB Circular A-123*,*revised*, Management’s Responsibility for Internal Control*. Circular A-12 focuses on providing agencies with a framework for assessing and managing risks more strategically and effectively. The Circular contains multiple appendices that address, at a more detailed level, one or more of the objectives of effective internal control. Appendix A provides a methodology for agency management to assess, document, test and report on internal controls over financial reporting. 

Appendix B requires agencies to maintain internal controls that reduce the risk of fraud, waste, and error in Government charge card programs. Appendix C implements the requirements of the Improper Payments Information Act, as amended by the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, which includes measurement, reporting, recovery and remediation. As a small, independent agency covered by the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002 as opposed to the CFO Act, NCD is exempt from many formal reporting requirements in Circular A-123.

The FMFIA requires federal agencies to provide an annual statement of assurance regarding management controls and financial systems. The objectives of NCD’s internal controls are to provide reasonable assurance that:

· Obligations and costs are in compliance with applicable laws and budget restrictions;

· Assets are safeguarded against waste, loss, unauthorized use, or misappropriation;

· Revenues and expenditures applicable to NCD operations are properly recorded and accounted for to permit the preparation of accounts and reliable to financial and statistical reports, and to maintain accountability over assets; and

· All programs are efficiently and effectively carried out in accordance with applicable laws and management policy.

**Section 2 of the FMFIA** requires federal agencies to report, on the basis of annual assessments, any material weaknesses that have been identified in connection with their internal and administrative controls. 

NCD’s completed an independent audit of financial statements for FY 2014 to ensure the agency is free from material misstatement. No material weaknesses were identified in internal control over financial reporting for FY 2014. The financial statements of the National Council on Disability were audited and NCD received an unqualified opion for FY2014.Furthermore, the audit did not identify any deficiencies in internal control.  

This resulted in an unqualified assurance that NCD’s systems and management controls comply with the requirements of the FMFIA. During FY 2014, the Council’s Audit and Finance Committee and NCD management focused efforts on streamlining financial processes and monitoring the operating effectiveness of key controls, such as monthly reconciliations of agency data to service provider data, quarterly analysis of financial statements, monitoring contracts and undelivered order status of open obligations, and year-end search for unrecorded liabilities and preparing year-end accruals. Accordingly, NCD’s assurance on its internal controls was unqualified based on the reviews and consideration of internal analyses, reconciliations and the findings identified in the *Independent Auditor’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting*, 

**Section 4 of the FMFIA**requires that agencies' financial management systems controls be evaluated annually. NCD relies upon GSA for the evaluation of its financial management systems for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014 in accordance with the *FMFIA*and OMB Circular No. A-127, *Financial Management Systems*, as applicable. NCD uses GSA as its accounting service provider. GSA’s financial management systems conform to the principles and standards required under Section 4 of the FMFIA. Accordingly, NCD is able to provide reasonable assurance under Section 4 of the FMFIA. 

**Legal Compliance**

Federal agencies are required to comply with a wide range of laws and regulations, including appropriations, employment, ethics, health and safety, and others. Responsibility for compliance primarily results with agency management. Compliance is addressed as part of agency financial statement audits. Agency auditors test for compliance with selected laws and regulations related to financial reporting. The FY 2014 audit did not report any instances of non-compliance. Management comments on compliance efforts with specific laws and regulations are below.

**Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA)**

Agencies subject to the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act (ATDA) of 2002 are not subject to the requirements of FFMIA. Accordingly, NCD is not subject to the requirements of FFMIA. However, OMB A-136, revised, requires NCD to be in compliance with FFMIA. NCD uses GSA as its accounting service provider. GSA’s financial management systems conform with the principles and standards required under OMB A-136 and FFMIA.

**Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act**

The Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA—P.L. 107-300) requires federal agencies to identify and report on significant payment programs that are susceptible to improper payments. The Act defines significant improper payments as those within a single payment program that exceed both 2.5 percent of that program’s annual amounts paid and $10 million annually. 

The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA), enacted on July 22, 2010, requires the development of policies and procedures for the prevention and detection of improper payments in the federal government. The Act expands on the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA), which requires an initial assessment to identify those programs that are susceptible to significant risk of improper payments. “Significant,” as defined in the Act, means that in the preceding fiscal year, improper payments in the program or activity may have exceeded $10,000,000 of all program or activity payments made during that fiscal year reported and 2.5 percent of program outlays; or $100,000,000.

NCD does not have any programs where significant erroneous payments have occurred within the agency. The Council will continue to review its financial operations on an annual basis to determine if any significant erroneous payments exist.

**Prompt Payment Act**

The Prompt Payment Act requires federal agencies to make timely payments to vendors, including any interest penalties for late invoice payments. In FY 2014, the NCD paid an immaterial amount in interest penalties on invoices processed.  However, in the Rocha and Company, PC final report, NCD’s auditors found that:

“The Council does not appear to comply with the Prompt Payment Act.  During our audit, we noted instances where payments to contractors and vendors were not made within the required 30-day stipulation.”  

NCD implemented procedures that will ensure that all payments are made within the timeframe prescribed by the Prompt Payment Act.

**Chairman’s Assurance on Internal Control-**The following pages contain NCD Chairman’s Statement of Assurance on Internal Control.

**Chairman’s Statement of Assurance**

The Council's management is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal control and financial management systems that meet the objectives of the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA). Based on the findings of the FY2013 Audit, the Council took aggressive steps in ensuring that its internal control over the effectiveness and efficiency of operations and compliance with applicable laws and regulations were in place and working effectively moving forward. As a result no material weaknesses were identified in internal control over financial reporting for FY 2014. The NCD received an unqualified opinion for FY2014. Furthermore, the audit did not identify any deficiencies in internal control.  

NCD is continually in monitoring internal control effectiveness. Operating with a small staff and under limited resources, the Council relies highly on the effectiveness and good-faith efforts of a staff.  The Council has hired permanent full-time staff with the skills to implement and maintain the key function of agency operations and to ensure continuity in operation.   

As the Council closes its FY2014 books, we have developed controls to identify failures or deficiencies in real-time to ensure that corrective measures will be taken while they still can still be remedied. The Council's goal is to become a model small independent agency with regard to financial procedures and controls. ln FY2015, the Council intends to strengthen its financial oversight by cross training key personnel to ensure ongoing compliance and continuity of NCD’s financial operations.  Additionally, the Audit and Finance Committee is tasked with the oversight of increased transparency and accountability of the financial management of the agency. 

Based on our assessment, we have determined that the Council's financial systems conform to applicable financial systems requirements.

Jeff Rosen

Chairperson

February 6, 2015

The Performance Section presents the agency’s performance in Fiscal Year 2013, the first year of its five-year Strategic Plan, which can be read in its entirety at: 

http://www.ncd.gov/Accountability/strategicplan/

This section also includes a discussion of strategies and factors affecting performance, the relationship of outputs to outcomes, a summary of methods used to verify and validate performance data, and performance results by strategic goal and strategic objectives.

# Performance Framework

NCD’s performance framework consists of a mission statement supported by a single, overarching strategic goal supported by two strategic objectives that advances NCD’s statutory mandate. The two supporting objectives and their corresponding strategies indicate how NCD will achieve its goal and provide an approach for measuring NCD’s progress and success. The strategic framework in the table below is followed by a detailed view of each objective and its corresponding strategies, key outcomes, means and key activities, and performance measures follows the overview.

NCD has developed specific strategies and measurements of outcomes, means and key activities for its two strategic objectives.

**Overview:** NCD cannot fulfill its mission without regular, meaningful engagement with its stakeholders. NCD’s authorizing statute mandates this valued interaction. More importantly, the value of policy evaluation and recommendations should be measured by whether they are consistent with the needs, challenges, and aspirations of NCD’s stakeholders. By facilitating meaningful communication with stakeholders, Objective 1 (Engagement) supports the agency’s strategic goal through identification of systems of success as well as shortfalls, toward which NCD can direct its attention in the formulation of policy solutions. 

Over the last several years, NCD has closely consulted stakeholders as key advisors in shaping NCD’s policy endeavors. NCD gathers information through a variety of means: public testimony, national and regional forums, electronic mail or letters from the public, public consultations via the Internet, research reports, conferences and meetings of stakeholder groups, federal workgroups, and meetings with members of Congress or their staff. In addition, NCD has also pursued creation of public-private working groups and/or federal advisory committees on priority issues to ensure NCD is both in continual contact with stakeholders and to act nimbly and efficiently when responding to identified need for action.

**Strategy 1A – Create and maintain regular opportunities to receive direct input from community stakeholders:**Coordinated collaboratively by the General Counsel and Policy Directorate and Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate, NCD will develop and implement an annual outreach plan to provide meaningful venues for direct contact with disability community stakeholders on a regular basis.

**Strategy 1B – Cultivate trusted relationships with Congress:**Coordinated collaboratively by the General Counsel and Policy Directorate and Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate, NCD will develop and implement a program for meaningful NCD engagement with Congressional Members and their staff and Committee leadership and their staff.

**Strategy 1C – Establish and cultivate trusted relationships with state, local, and tribal governments and other entities:**Coordinated collaboratively by the Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate and the General Counsel and Policy Directorate, NCD will develop and implement a program for meaningful NCD engagement with leaders of state, local, and tribal governments and other entities. 

**Strategy 1D – Brand NCD as a principal national voice of the disability community:** Coordinated by the Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate, NCD will develop and implement a communications plan to develop messages and modes of delivery designed to enhance the understanding of NCD’s mission, activities, and accomplishments with its stakeholders.

**Overview:** Using the information NCD has gained from its engagement activities with its stakeholders, as outlined in Objective 1 (Engagement) above, NCD must identify and prioritize opportunities to add value and make a difference in peoples’ lives. NCD does not have rulemaking or enforcement authority. Rather, NCD serves as an independent advisor on disability matters to the President and Congress. This role is essential to assure the Federal Government is well-informed and qualified to perform its duties and effectively serve the public, including individuals with disabilities. In addition to meeting with stakeholders, NCD advocates for equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for people with disabilities of all ages and backgrounds by continually reviewing disability programs and policies and providing analysis and recommendations on disability policy to the President, Congress, and other federal agencies. 

NCD’s analysis and recommendations have led to enactment of important laws and other improvements to the programs and services provided by the many federal agencies that serve the disability community. Yet people with disabilities continue to face personal, social, and economic disadvantages and barriers that prevent access to the same opportunities as Americans without disabilities. Therefore, NCD will increase emphasis on providing recommendations and looking for opportunities for their implementation. 

NCD optimizes opportunities to put to practical use its vast amount of acquired knowledge through years of intensive research activities. This research is reflected in NCD’s reports, papers, and briefs which each contain analysis and recommendations for actions at all levels of government. These reports and papers are available on NCD’s agency website at www.ncd.gov. 

Objective 2 (Policy Development & Collaboration) supports the activities of identifying and formulating solutions to emerging and existing challenges; providing tools to facilitate effective implementation of policy solutions; and engaging and influencing current debates, all of which directly support the strategic goal. Further, Objective 2 supports the strategic goal by leveraging NCD’s resources through coordination and collaboration to amplify its impact relative to the agency’s size.

**Strategy 2A – Cultivate trusted relationships with other federal agencies and look for opportunities to coordinate and work collaboratively:** Coordinated collaboratively by the General Counsel and Policy Directorate and Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate, NCD will develop and implement a program for meaningful NCD engagement with other federal agencies. 

**Strategy 2B – Work closely with and enlist the support of stakeholders to develop and advance policy responses to priority issues:** Coordinated collaboratively by the General Counsel and Policy Directorate and Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate, NCD will develop and implement a program to partner with a cross-section of stakeholders to consider priority policy issues and strategic activities to address them, and to support successful implementation of federal legislation that benefits people with disabilities. 

**Strategy 2C – Produce materials that have practical utility for federal, state, tribal and local stakeholders regarding successful implementation of federal policies:**Coordinated collaboratively by the General Counsel and Policy Directorate and Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate, NCD will produce and disseminate shorter, timely policy briefs, white papers, “policy toolkits,” and other materials. 

**Strategy 2D - Update NCD’s annual progress report to be more responsive to Congress and the Administration:** Coordinated collaboratively by the General Counsel and Policy Directorate and Legislative Affairs and Outreach Directorate, NCD will develop a new model for its statutorily mandated annual progress report that will contain a significant discussion of the overall state of the disability community and the policies affecting it based upon information NCD acquires through use of strategies envisioned throughout this plan.

# Performance Measurement Challenges

NCD is a micro-agency that advises the President and Congress on disability policy by engaging with the community, setting policy priorities and working in such areas, developing policy recommendations and promoting progress and systems change on issues that affect the disability community. With a budget of only $3.2 million, 15 part-time Council Members, and 13 full-time staff (when fully staffed), NCD has adopted a strategy of working in conjunction with a wide range of stakeholders – including people with disabilities, federal, state and local agencies, elected officials and their staff, universities, and a diverse group of non-profit organizations and individual disability policy experts and advocates – to advance our mission, goals and objectives. 

NCD’s strategic objectives of engagement and policy development can be quantifiably measured by our raw data and enumerating the number of people that attend our forums, regularly engage with us via social media, download and read our policy reports, and adopt or promote our recommendations. However, measuring NCD’s impact on its strategic goal of guaranteeing equal opportunity and providing for economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society for individuals with disabilities is far more subjective since these are systemic endeavors in which NCD is part of a community of agencies, advocates, and others seeking to secure such outcomes.  

Accordingly, NCD’s analysis of the relationships of program outputs (such as forums and reports) to tangible outcomes impacting our stakeholders requires a multi-year time horizon. Measuring NCD’s impact on its strategic goal of guaranteeing equal opportunity and providing for economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society for individuals with disabilities is challenging since these are large-scale, long-term endeavors. 

Accordingly and as previously mentioned, as we evaluate performance measurements, key measures, targets and outcomes, we ask:

· Has NCD identified critical needs where our engagement with stakeholders and policy development and collaboration can advance existing initiatives?

· Can NCD be a thought leader, performing important research and analysis on critical topics?

· Can NCD provide practical, timely policy recommendations and consultations to Members of Congress and the Executive Branch? 

NCD is continually working to identify better mechanisms for measuring outcomes and reporting achievements. This includes increased efforts to gather and report personal stories of where our engagement or policy initiatives provided a spark or tipping point toward improving the lives of people with disabilities. The Performance Highlights section of the Management’s Discussion and Analysis presents specific comments from impacted stakeholders and a case study of how engagement and policy converged into positive outcomes on the issue of parenting rights of people with disabilities.

# Program Activities and Performance Results by Strategic Objectives

As indicated above, NCD has one overarching strategic goal and two strategic objectives to advance the agencies mission, strategic goal and statutory responsibilities. Below is a description of key policy and program accomplishments in FY 2012 and planned future activities.

**Objective 1: Engagement**

NCD is an advisory agency that seeks to provide timely, valuable counsel to the President, Congress and other federal agencies regarding policies, programs, practices, and procedures that affect people with disabilities. NCD views its diverse stakeholders – people with disabilities of all ages and types of disability; groups and organizations concerned with people with disabilities; policymakers; and families and support system of people with disabilities – as key informants to the development of NCD’s policy recommendations. Accordingly, NCD prioritizes creating opportunities to hear from its stakeholders through a variety of means: regional policy forums; public testimony received at meetings in person or by telephone; letters of concern from the public; participation at conferences and meetings of stakeholder groups; congressional policy briefings; and listening sessions and town halls the agency hosts throughout the year.

In addition to these opportunities, NCD’s legislation mandates a minimum of four public meetings annually. Some of NCD’s most important activities occur during the quarterly meetings. Public comments, full-length presentations by stakeholders, and opportunities to meet with additional stakeholders in the disability community who attend the meetings afford NCD the opportunity to identify needs as well as promising practices in communities and regions across the country. NCD also has a history of playing a convening role, advancing policy discussions in the process, by bringing diverse stakeholders together that may not otherwise have policy discussions with one another. 

**Fiscal Year 2014**

In FY2014, NCD hosted several such gatherings on the topics stakeholders have indicated they want to hear the most about and that build on our previous work: 

· NCD, in conjunction with the United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD), held an education forum in Washington, DC, with nearly 100 representatives of the disability and veteran communities from across the country. The educational forum was an opportunity to hear from leaders and experts from various disability, veteran, faith and business organizations involved in promoting greater understanding of the importance of the treaty and the process for ratification. The UNCRPD offers a vital framework for creating legislation and policies around the world that embraces the human rights and dignity of all people with disabilities. 

· From December 2013 to June 2014, NCD collaborated with federal agency representatives, including the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and disability leadership stakeholders to obtain input in the planning and implementation of Medicaid managed care through a series of five community forums in federal fiscal year 2013-2014 which have been so far held in Topeka, KS; Tallahassee, FL; Chicago, IL; Sacramento, CA; and New York, NY  Upcoming forums will be held in Atlanta, GA; Philadelphia, PA; Baton Rouge, LA; and Seattle, WA. The forums promote consumer and stakeholder engagement with federal and state officials and feature facilitated discussion of experiences, preferences and desired outcomes for Medicaid managed care as described by disability leadership; federal and state agency representatives, health plans, and providers. At the forums, NCD uses the Medicaid managed care principles outlined in the NCD report, “Medicaid Managed Care for People with Disabilities” to help frame discussions and the values guiding policy transitions in the states. 

· In May 2014, NCD held a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill in conjunction with the release of a report examining the accessibility of communication before, during and after emergencies for people with sensory disabilities (deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low-vision, deaf-blind and speech disabilities) as well as people with intellectual, developmental and/or psychiatric disabilities. In the report, NCD documented successful practices and barriers to effective emergency communications. This study, released during National Hurricane Preparedness Week, was conducted to help emergency planners and state and local officials provide effective communication to people with disabilities before, during and after emergencies. The briefing was well-attended by congressional staff and state and local emergency managers. 

· In June 2014, NCD co-hosted a forum on issues related to adoption and foster care and people with disabilities. The Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, National Council on Disability, Child Welfare League of America, National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychological Association joined with NCD to host this event.  The forum was well attended by congressional staff and representatives of applicable federal agencies with regulatory and enforcement responsibilities in these topics.  The forum explored the disproportionate number of parents with disabilities who have had to fight within the child welfare system to retain or sometimes gain custody of their own children as well as the issues faced by people with disabilities who would like to become parents either through domestic or foreign adoption or through assistive reproductive technologies.

· In July 2014, NCD convened a congressional forum on the status of parents with disabilities and their families. Through the invited testimony several panels of witnesses as well as the questions asked of the witnesses by the NCD Council Members, the forum highlighted the barriers people with disabilities are facing in creating and maintaining strong families and examined what policy measures are either underway or are needed to address the persistent barriers experienced by people with disabilities when attempting to exercise their fundamental and cherished right to parent. Testimony was presented from both individuals with disabilities and Republican and Democratic state lawmakers, as well as child welfare experts on the frequent incidence of parents with disabilities to be challenged in guardianship proceedings or challenged for their abilities to perform as parents. Child welfare experts and others provided expert testimony disapproving such beliefs.

In addition to congressional and intergovernmental engagement, NCD also continued to actively solicit and collect public comments as a regular part of its quarterly meetings.  In addition to oral remarks made, with every meeting, NCD also receives numerous written comments in advance. Comments received before and during NCD’s four quarterly meetings in FY 2014 were wide-ranging but included those about the U.N Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the futility care policies of states and hospitals, deinstitutionalization policies, chemical and electrical sensitivities, and voting poll access.

In addition to congressional and intergovernmental engagement, NCD also continued to actively solicits and collects public comments as a regular part of its quarterly meetings. In addition, with every meeting, NCD also receives numerous written comments in advance, in addition to the oral remarks made. Comments during NCD’s four quarterly meeting in FY 2013 were focused on workplace accommodations, the U.N Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, futility care policies of states and hospitals, deinstitutionalization, access to service for children with complex medical needs, and special education policy.

**Conferences and Other Speaking Engagements** – NCD receives numerous invitations each year to speak at state, national, and international conferences and other events and makes good use of the opportunities it accepts by sharing its latest policy findings and recommendations with hundreds of attendees at each event. In FY 2013, NCD participated in over 50 outreach events increasing last year’s total by 1/3rd with our media exposure more than doubling last year’s totals. Events included interviews, op-eds, presentations at national and state level conferences/meetings, webinars and testimony. These extend beyond our report releases and hearings and often lead us to new work and exciting new working relationships. Highlights included:  

· NCD submitted a policy session proposal regarding Medicaid managed care and people with disabilities to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) for their annual legislative summit, which hosts thousands of state legislators and international policymakers each year. After NCSL accepted the proposal, NCD assisted in identifying appropriate speakers and producing policy materials for the session, which was attended by approximately 150 state legislators. 

· NCD staff co-authored an op-ed on law enforcement’s response to people with disabilities featured in *The Atlantic*.  

· NCD Council members and staff were quoted and its work highlighted numerous times throughout the year in a variety of state, local, and national news broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, and blogs, including the Associated Press, Fox News, Washington Post, and many, many others.  

· In ongoing cross-agency collaboration, NCD has maintained a regular presence in posts to Disability.gov’s blog and participation in the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence and African-Americans weekly Twitter Roundtables. 

· NCD Council Members continue their engagement with the tech industry through meetings with representatives of Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple to discuss accessibility. A Council Member provided the keynote presentation at the M-Enabling conference on the topic of social media accessibility, and at a Linux Conference in Chicago.

· As an outcome of the engagement in the social media accessibility meeting noted above, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) organized and ran a social media access 'hackathon', which NCD helped to promote, and NCD collaborated with ODEP again to run three on-line dialogues on social media access, technology and employment opportunities.

· NCD utilized a different format to host a stakeholder forum in Berkeley, California in which participants determined the content and presentations of the event. More than 270 people attended over two days of policy discussions that addressed everything from the school-to-prison pipeline for students with disabilities to accessible transportation, housing futures for the thousands of autistic adults flooding current services, and encouragement of new technology, including transportation network companies, to be fully inclusive. The major areas of focus that came out of this meeting ensured that the Council continues engaging on the issues that matter to Americans with Disabilities from outside the beltway.

· An NCD staff member and author of the *Rocking the Cradle*report presented at numerous academic, legal, and policy events on the topic of ensuring the rights of parents with disabilities and their children.

· NCD took a leadership role in two major White House firsts. The first ever Black History Month event discussing the contributions of African-Americans with Disabilities, and the first ever LGBT/ADA Pride event, discussing the issues facing LGBT Americans with Disabilities.

· NCD members met with the Department of Justice, the National Economic Council and representatives of the Domestic Policy Council discuss NCD’s work on subminimum wage.

· NCD Council Members maintained ongoing collaboration with the Vice President’s Office in response to the Newtown school shooting about youth with mental health disabilities. 

· NCD presented to the Kansas legislature about managed care.

Through these engagements activities NCD reached over 10,000 people.

**Congressional and Federal Agency Engagement** – Throughout FY 2014 NCD continued to cultivate and deepen relationships with staff of congressional offices as a trusted advisor in both Member and committee offices and federal agencies. NCD responds to calls and letters from individual congressional offices throughout each year that request disability-related information regarding constituents’ needs. In addition to being a resource for Members’ district offices, NCD strives to provide timely policy information and recommendations to legislative offices and federal agencies. NCD staff provided electronic copies of its policy reports and papers to legislative directors in the House and Senate and appropriate federal agencies throughout the past fiscal year. In addition, NCD staff has offered policy briefings on its reports’ major findings and recommendations, as well, utilizing teleconferences and in-person Hill and agency briefing formats. Some highlights of NCD’s FY14 congressional activity include the following:

· Over several months and iterations, NCD provided suggested language changes to the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS) legislation considered in the House regarding increasing requirements regarding its accessibility. Those changes were incorporated into the legislative language in the version that was passed by the House Homeland Security Committee.  

· NCD provided briefings of its *Clearing the Backlog and Facilitating Benefits for Veterans with Disabilities*report to the House Veteran Affairs Committee and the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee.

· In May 2014, NCD held a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill in conjunction with the release of a report examining the accessibility of communication before, during and after emergencies for people with sensory disabilities (deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low-vision, deaf-blind and speech disabilities) as well as people with intellectual, developmental and/or psychiatric disabilities. In the report, NCD documented successful practices and barriers to effective emergency communications. This study, released during National Hurricane Preparedness Week, was conducted to help emergency planners and state and local officials provide effective communication to people with disabilities before, during and after emergencies. The briefing was well-attended by congressional staff and state and local emergency managers. 

· In June 2014, NCD co-hosted a forum on issues related to adoption and foster care and people with disabilities. The Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, National Council on Disability, Child Welfare League of America, National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychological Association joined with NCD to host this event. The forum was well attended by congressional staff and representatives of applicable federal agencies with regulatory and enforcement responsibilities in these topics.  The forum explored the disproportionate number of parents with disabilities who have had to fight within the child welfare system to retain or sometimes gain custody of their own children as well as the issues faced by people with disabilities who would like to become parents either through domestic or foreign adoption or through assistive reproductive technologies.

· In July 2014, NCD hosted a congressional forum on the challenges facing parents with disabilities. Active participants and supporters of this hearing included state legislators who have passed or proposed state legislation to protect the rights of parents with disabilities in their states; the American Psychological Association; the National Association of Social Workers; the National Center on Parents with Disabilities and their Families; and the National Council on Independent Living.****

In FY 2014, the Chairperson and Executive Director continued to engage in extensive outreach to NCD’s federal agency partners. NCD met with colleagues at over 50 agencies, sub-agencies, and Hill offices to continue partnership conversations and zero in on key policy foci of NCD, including the Office of Federal Contracts and Compliance Programs (Section 503 regulations), the  Pentagon (ADA compliance and international installations), U.S. Department of Agriculture (farm bill & rural housing issues), the Office of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Benefits Administration (disability claims backlog), the Department of Defense (disability claims backlog), Joining Forces of the Office of the First Lady at the White House (disability claims backlog), the Office of the Vice President (mental health & gun control) as well as our traditional partners of the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration. 

Understanding the critical role NCD plays in bringing a diversity of voices representing Americans with disabilities to the White House and the Congress, NCD has worked to maintain relationships with non-disability diversity organizations including but not limited to the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, the Human Rights Campaign, the Asian American Justice Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Black Justice Coalition. This has resulted in the Council ensuring that communities of color are at the table as we discuss critical issues but also that feedback from these communities is integrated as NCD determines its policy priorities. 

As referenced later in this narrative, NCD continued its dedicated focus on emergency management, closely collaborating with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through weekly calls with the Director of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination. NCD has also provided updates to the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications on this collaboration, as well as other critical areas of emergency management, to help inform the oversight role of the Committee. 

Finally, in keeping with NCD’s strategic plan goal to leverage media more aggressively to help brand NCD and help frame national conversations on disability, NCD Members and staff were highlighted in numerous state, local, national and international media pieces on a broad range of topics.

**Highlights of NCD’s media placement in FY14 include:**

· NCD’s Executive Director received a long quote by the Washington Post following NCD’s support of the historic White House event on the intersection of the LGBT and disability communities in FY14. 

· NCD’s Public Affairs Specialist co-authored an opinions article in The Atlantic titled “How Misunderstanding Disability Leads to Police Violence.” This piece has led to subsequent pieces in The Daily Beast, and the Huffington Post.

· NCD’s Attorney Advisor wrote an article in GPSolo: A Publication of the American Bar Association, titled “Can Parents Lose Custody Simply Because They Are Disabled?” regarding key findings and recommendation in NCD’s *Rocking the Cradle*report.  

· Kansas newspapers, television newscasts and online blogs were abuzz for most of December 2013 following NCD’s Medicaid managed care forum following NCD’s suggestion that there should be a one year delay of KanCare’s developmental disabilities carve-in given the degree of problems identified in the roll-out of Medicaid managed care in the state thus far.  

These activities, in combination with regular and numerous in-office meetings, including with international delegations, demonstrate that NCD has maintained a large impact, relative to its size. NCD continues to make strides in being a national voice of the disability community, reflective of the community’s wide range of disability types, geography, age, and cultural diversity.

**Fiscal Year 2015**

In Fiscal Year 2015, the National Council on Disability (NCD) will work with our federal partners and stakeholders to advance the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by promoting policies, programs, practices, and procedures that guarantee equal opportunity and provide for economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society for individuals with disabilities. NCD is committed to approaching its work with an inclusive lens that learns about, includes, and respects various perspectives and backgrounds, including multi-generational perspectives, reflected in the disability community. Impact the development and implementation of Medicaid managed care systems across the country to ensure they are successful for beneficiaries with disabilities;

· Work with congressional staffers toward introduction of federal legislation that emphasizes and invests in integrated, individualized supported employment and deemphasizes and shifts resources away from segregated, subminimum wage employment;

· Work with congressional staffers toward introduction of federal legislation that clarifies and safeguards the rights of parents with disabilities; 

· Work with federal agencies toward development of guidance that clarifies rights and protections of parents with disabilities within a variety of circumstances;

· Develop definitions of and offer mechanisms to measure the quality of home- and community-based services;

· Offer policymakers a viable policy roadmap to reform Social Security’s disability program;

· Assist federal partners, congressional staff, and Administration officials in seeing an elimination of the veterans disabilities claim backlog;

· In concert with industry partners, develop and facilitate solutions to accessibility issues using social media; and

· Work with state and federal partners to sharpen the focus outcomes based compliance and monitoring for students with disabilities in kindergarten through twelfth grade with particular emphasis on literacy, high school graduation, and post-secondary enrollment.

# Objective 2: Policy Development & Collaboration

NCD contributes to the promotion of successful disability policies in education, transportation, emergency preparedness, international disability rights, employment, foster youth with disabilities, vocational rehabilitation, livable communities, and crime victims with disabilities - to name a few.  This section outlines NCD’s activities in this area for FY 2014 and what the agency has planned for 2015 and 2016.

**Fiscal Year 2014**

In FY 2014, NCD held multiple forums and completed several reports, including: 

· *Clearing the Backlog and Facilitating Benefits for Veterans with Disabilities*:  http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/11122013/

· *Experiences of Voters with Disabilities in the 2012 Election Cycle*: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/10242013/

· *NCD Educational Forum Report:  United Nations CRPD*: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/12122013/

· *A Promising Start:  A Preliminary Analysis of Court Decisions of the ADA Amendments Act*: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/07232013/

· *A Medicaid Block Grant Program: Implications for People with Disabilities*: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/05222013/

· *The Case for Medicaid Self-Direction: A White Paper on Research, Practice and Policy Opportunities*: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/05222013A/

· *Medicaid Managed Care for People with Disabilities*: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/20130315/

· *Toward the Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities:  Examining the Accessibility of Overseas Facilities and Programs*: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/032013/

· *National Disability Policy:  A Progress Report*: http://www.ncd.gov/progress_reports/10312013

In FY 2014 NCD’s Annual Progress Report, we mark 30 years of progress on disability rights, while also highlighting outstanding barriers. We have updated a series of data tables that look at trends in disability policy including voting, housing rights, IDEA enforcement, transportation and other markers of independence.  

In October 2013, NCD released, ***“****Experience of Voters with Disabilities in the 2012 Election Cycle,**”***to gauge the effectiveness of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).  The report was prepared in partnership with the National Disability Rights Network and EIN SOF Communications.  Enacted by Congress in 2002, HAVA seeks to ensure that Americans with disabilities could vote independently and privately alongside their non-disabled peers. NCD gathered the experiences of nearly 900 voters with disabilities across the nation during the 2012 election cycle using an open-ended questionnaire, which became the blueprint for the report.  *Experience of Voters with Disabilities*also provides a comprehensive overview of how federal funds were used in an attempt to increase and insure voting access in the United States. The report**explored the physical barriers, attitudes, technological gaps, legislative hurdles and polling place practices encountered by voters with disabilities in 2012, by detailing how HAVA has improved voting access for Americans with disabilities in the past decade.  This report continued to be central to the work of the Council throughout 2014. 

Beginning in December 2013 and continuing through the duration of FY 14 and 15, NCD collaborated with federal agency representatives and disability leadership stakeholders to obtain input in the planning and implementation of Medicaid Managed Care through a series of five community forums in federal fiscal year 2013-2014 which were held in Topeka, KS; Tallahassee, FL; Chicago, IL; Sacramento, CA; and New York, NY, promoting stakeholder engagement with federal and state officials. Upcoming forums will take place in Atlanta, GA; Philadelphia, PA; Baton Rouge, LA; and Seattle, WA. The forums featured facilitated discussion of experiences, preferences and desired outcomes for Medicaid managed care as described by disability leadership; federal and state agency representatives, health plans, and providers.  At the forums, NCD was able to promote the Medicaid managed care principles outlined in the NCD report, *Medicaid Managed Care for People with Disabilities*.   

On May 27, 2014, NCD issued a report examining the accessibility of communication before, during and after emergencies for people with sensory disabilities (deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low-vision, deaf-blind and speech disabilities) as well as people with intellectual, developmental and/or psychiatric disabilities. In the report, NCD documented successful practices and barriers to effective emergency communications.  This study, released during National Hurricane Preparedness Week, was conducted to help emergency planners and state and local officials provide effective communication to people with disabilities before, during and after emergencies. 

*A Promising Start: Preliminary Analysis of Court Decisions under the ADA Amendments Act,* which reviewed the court decisions that have been rendered to date applying the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) and reveals significant improvements in how courts are interpreting protections intended for coverage under the ADA. NCD’s report provided 23 findings and three recommendations based on an analysis of court decisions made under the ADAAA by examining decisions rendered under ADA amendments that were agreed on across both sides of the aisle in Congress. Using this measure, it is clear that the ADAAA has made a significant positive difference for plaintiffs in ADA lawsuits thus far. 

NCD’s efforts continue to explore the current issues in effective communications before, during and after an emergency situation; seek to identify potential solutions; develop proposals intended to have a positive impact on the policy environment; and develop guidance summarizing promising practices intended to educate emergency planners, as well as state and local officials, about how to provide effective communication to all people with disabilities.

NCD also weighed in on a variety of subjects via letters and meetings including, but not limited to, the U.S. Department of Labor companionship exemption, the Judge Rotenberg Center’s use of electroshock therapy; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Olmstead guidance; the President’s Budget; Executive Order, sheltered workshops, Building bridges with LBGTQ, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; NCD will follow-up on the recommendations contained in each of those reports, provide direct and timely assistance to the Administration and Congress, and will continue to work with our stakeholders to identify new policy areas to study. 

NCD’s report highlights the place of disability in our national fiscal policy and analyzes options for SSI and SSDI reform, including what measures could increase work effort for people currently utilizing SSI/DI, what measures could decrease the likelihood of using such benefits, and what financing options exist for both programs.

**Fiscal Year 2015**

NCD will shortly release *Reforming Social Security’s Disability Benefits System*, a report examining complex policy in two benefit programs linked to key aspects of the ADA—Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  Recommendations focus primarily on decoupling health care benefits and cash benefits eligibility, providing wrap-around health benefits, further examination, planning, and gradual phase-in of a revised disability definition for benefits eligibility, management proficiency, early intervention, improved federal collaboration efforts, ways to boost work incentives, evidence-based practices addressing youth and people with mental health needs among vulnerable groups, and state supplemental systems.  Current budget debates in Congress and with the President have highlighted that our nation faces fiscal challenges.  According to the 2011 Social Security Trustees’ Report, the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund is scheduled to become exhausted in 2016.  Because of increasing numbers of claims due to the economic situation and concerns with potential work disincentives facing both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients, these programs have been highlighted as in need of reform by policymakers. 

As we approach the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the National Council on Disability has heard feedback from our colleagues at the White House, from Congress, and from the general public, and have decided to tailor our youth-focused projects on three issues that are often obstacles for youth to achieve the goals of the ADA, full participation, economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and equality of opportunity

***School to Prison Pipeline***

In 2003, NCD has decided to take a look back its 2003 report *Addressing the Needs of Youth with Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System: The Current Status of Evidence-Based Research*. In the last year, a number of different efforts have been going on around the country looking at best practices in reforming the juvenile justice system to improve outcomes for all young people.

With the tremendous body of work tied to this subject area already, the Council does not intend to reinvent the wheel and engage in a deep dive about the state of the state.  Rather, NCD is looking to work with key partners including the Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund, the HSC Foundation, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, and others to look at the work that contributed to the Council of State Governments report C*ore Principles for Reducing Recidivism and Improving Other Outcomes for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System*. While this report represents a wide array of perspectives and far reaching recommendations, it is NCD’s hope to use it as a tool to establish a foundation for more focused discussion, tied specifically to potential upcoming reauthorizations of IDEA and ESEA.

***Social Security***

In 2015, the National Council on Disability will be engaging with the National Council on Independent Living, the World Institute on Disability, and utilizing its hearing authority to convene a hearing on Capitol Hill tied to Social Security reform and youth with disabilities.  Following the publication of NCD’s upcoming report on SSI/SSDI, the goal of this hearing is to allow members of Congress and their staff to hear directly from young people utilizing the program (or having transitioned off) as to what changes need to be made to assist youth with disabilities to transition off of benefits, and additionally to deter young people from entering the system at all.

***Education Issue Briefs In Light of Reauthorizations of ESEA and HEA***

Given the priorities in Congress of completing the reauthorizations of both the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Higher Education Act (HEA) in the coming session, NCD intends to provide policy principles and recommendations to both House and Senate committees working on reauthorization, to promote education equality and high expectations for students with disabilities as well as consider professional development programs and strategies to support teachers to meet the needs of students with disabilities. 

***CMS Regional Office Stakeholder Meetings***– This project is follow-up to our Medicaid Managed Care report and would facilitate NCD, local stakeholder and CMS Regional Office staff conversations to promote greater dialogue and contact between key decision-makers in CMS' Regional Office system and the disability community regarding Managed Care waiver applications and dual eligible demonstration proposals.  In FY 15, NCD will hold four additional regional forums with HHS regional offices regarding Medicaid managed care and the review of state 1115 and 1915(b)(c) waiver applications, dual eligible demonstration proposals and relevant Medicaid waiver or state plan amendments.

***Transportation –*** Investing in independence necessarily involves investing in transportation. People with disabilities cannot work if they cannot get to the workplace.

In 2005**,**NCD released a comprehensive transportation report addressing access to ground transportation for people with disabilities: *The Current State of Transportation for People with Disabilities in the United States*, (2005), www.ncd.gov/publications/2005/06132005. In FY 2014, NCD has looked at progress made since 2005 and examining the recommendations made by NCD in the 2005 report to identify which recommendations have and have not been addressed successfully, and identify what barriers remain for people with disabilities in accessing transportation, including rural transportation. Particular emphasis is being placed on transportation issues for people with disabilities in rural and outlying urban areas; and inner city transit issues – subways, buses, taxis and issues regarding “silo” transit systems such as para-transit. 

***Emerging Technology in Transportation***- In 2004 NCD issued a report, *Design for Inclusion*, aimed at educating designers and manufacturers about the way electronic and information technology (E&IT) intersects with the needs of individuals with disabilities, and how designing with access in mind can significantly increase the size of targeted markets for E&IT.  In 2011, NCD took the next step in recognizing the transformative power of technology and innovation, and examined the importance of social media and other information technologies in connecting people to job opportunities in report *The Power of Digital Inclusion*. 

The latest innovations in technology are now upon us through the use of autonomous vehicles.  Autonomous vehicles are vehicles capable of operating with minimal or no input from a human driver beyond entering an intended destination or a planned travel route.  While this technology is still in its infancy, it is emerging.  The expanded use of these vehicles could begin to address the dramatic increase in social isolation, chronic unemployment, and an overall poorer quality of life stemming in no small part from a lack of transportation.  For people who are blind, experience seizures, or have physical, developmental or intellectual disabilities whose effects prevent them from driving, autonomous vehicles could provide a new and vital transportation option.  Many senior citizens would also benefit from this technology as they experience isolation - often from a lack of transportation.  In addition, in most rural areas of the country there simply is not adequate public transportation to meet the needs of persons with disabilities. 

Advancing this technology may ease the demand on government dollars to support such transit systems.  Hence the potential opportunities this advance could bring to people with disabilities is significant and requires an examination of the public policy barriers that need to be eliminated to further the development of this technology, and improve the quality of lives for persons with disabilities. 

Several states across the country have already passed legislation relative to the operation of autonomous vehicles.  NCD would like to ensure, as more states begin to experiment with allowing this technology that no federal barriers exist that would prevent its wider use.  In 2014, NCD will engage with industry experts to identify the policy barriers of this technology and recommend federal legislation to further advance the testing and trial operation of autonomous vehicles.  In addition, the project will include drafting model legislation, which states may use to create a consistent approach across the country. 

Activities such as these assist with NCD meeting performance measures highlighted in its strategic plan resulting in an immediate impact.  For instance, because of our work NCD has been asked to participate on a number federal commissions and councils including the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Disability Working Group, Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Long Term Disaster Recovery Initiative and National Response Framework as well as at the state level with our involvement in the Council of State Governments (CSG) Deeper Learning Focus Group (related to education reform).  

Indeed, the  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) linked to NCD’s FY 12*****Analysis and Recommendations for the Implementation of Managed Care in Medicaid Programs for People with Disabilities*****document http://www.medicaid.gov/Medicaid-CHIP-Program-Information/By-Topics/Delivery-Systems/Medicaid-Managed-Long-Term-Services-and-Supports-MLTSS.html on the same website where CMS is highlighting their own initiatives. 

***Defining and Measuring Home and Community Based Services Quality* -** Over the course of the last several years, considerable energy and effort has been focused on the topic of expanding Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) for people with disabilities and older adults. Through programs like Money Follows the Person, the State Balancing Incentive Program and the Community First Choice State Option, states have been offered financial incentives to shift away from institutional services and towards HCBS. Studies have shown that community services are less expensive than institutional care and making such a shift could potentially save Medicaid millions of dollars annually. Additionally, efforts by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s 1999 *Olmstead v. L.C.* decision have also helped to further the shift towards community services.  Despite this significant progress in terms of state willingness to invest in community support infrastructure, considerable tensions remain as to how to define and assess the quality of HCBS. 

Additionally, as the Olmstead decision is applied in new contexts, definitions of integrated day and employment activities acquire particular relevance.

CMS has recently issued numerous public comment opportunities focusing on this particular question, and ongoing deliberations within numerous federal agencies, including DOJ, HUD, CMS and the new Administration on Community Living continue to work to identify the best ways at ensuring quality measurement infrastructures that are truly reflective of community life. This project will provide a meaningful and practical summary of the relevant issues and options available to state and federal policymakers with regards to defining and assessing HCBS systems for consistency with the goals and intent of the Medicaid HCBS program, compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the ability to meaningfully enhance the quality of life of individuals with disabilities and older adults.**Further aspects of this project that could be explored include examining: how HCBS should be defined and what should and should not be funded utilizing HCBS dollars; what constitutes meaningful compliance with the federal Olmstead decision and what implications have yet to be fully explored by policymakers and advocates; and how policymaking and quality assessment activities of both Medicaid and non-Medicaid programs can be improved with regards to HCBS. 

***Affordable Care Act--***NCD expects to release a report on the Affordable Care Act in FY15. The purpose of the research will be to analyze the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on people with disabilities . ACA is one of the most significant pieces of domestic legislation enacted since the 1960s. ACA’s changes to the country’s health care system will affect millions of Americans, with a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities. Without question, many provisions of ACA will result in significant improvements in health care access for people with disabilities. On the other hand, as they implement ACA’s favorable provisions, federal and state policymakers may not use approaches calculated to achieve the maximum possible gains for people with disabilities. Moreover, ACA’s new initiatives create new dangers. 

The decisions of federal and state policymakers as well as private sector entities (such as insurers and providers) will greatly shape the fate of people with disabilities under ACA. ACA implementation is at a critical point, a time to take stock of what has already happened and to identify the future choices that will most significantly affect people with disabilities. The first open enrollment period has ended and the second took place during work on this project. Also, most (but not all) of ACA’s key federal regulations have been finalized. Critically important decisions loom ahead, some at the federal level, but many more for states and private entities, including health plans and employers. This project will assess what has taken place thus far while providing a comprehensive guide to future decisions impacting people with disabilities. 

***ADA@25 Scorecard****--* In our work to revise the format of the Annual Progress report to make it more user-friendly for our varied stakeholders, including Members of Congress and their staff, in 2015, NCD plans to produce, with the assistance of a contractor and local stakeholders, a five state examination of progress made in implementing the goals of the ADA in the past 25 years. The Council will convene a stakeholder group of national disability stakeholders to determine objective metrics to measure implementation and compliance with the ADA.  Additionally state stakeholders will be asked to identify targets and goals to be achieved by the 30th ADA Anniversary to measure continuing and future implementation efforts. These metrics will be utilized by the Council in meeting our statutory obligation to inform the President and Congress about annual progress.  We also envision this as a way to make the Progress Report more valuable to our stakeholders and an actual tool that they can use in their work at all levels of government. 

***White House Forum on Parenting with a Disability –***As mentioned earlier, the Council continues to receive significant interest from Federal and State legislators, community based organization (disability and non-disability), and the general public about its work on the Civil Rights of Parents with Disabilities.  NCD is looking to convene a forum on this topic-- to provide a venue for the necessary key stakeholders (parents with disabilities, federal agencies, advocates, members of Congress and their staff, service providers, and researchers) to convene and begin focusing the necessary attention this issue so rightly deserves.  The conference would attempt to answer several questions of prominent concern such as: what actions have been taken on the state and federal level to address discrimination against parents with disabilities and their children – what are the barriers and facilitators; what promising practices and/or state initiatives have been implemented to support parents with disabilities and their children since the release of NCD’s report; and what progress has been made on NCD’s report recommendations and what more needs to be done to advance and promote the rights of parents with disabilities and their children. In addition, the conference will break the report out into key topics including, but not limited to child custody, foster care and adoption.

**Fiscal Year 2016**

For FY 2016, NCD plans on building on past success such as our revamped annual progress report and completing several significant policy reports in areas of priority to the community and Congress. We also intend to begin several new policy projects of national concern for people with disabilities identified through our outreach and engagement efforts. Though these topics are weighty, the goal is not to issue a series of multi-hundred page reports, but rather keep the length to something useful and include concise summaries, accessible data tables and infographics, and specific policy recommendations tied to upcoming reauthorizations.  NCD has identified several possible new projects and areas to address systemic issues affecting people with disabilities.  These potential policy areas include: 

***Reforming Private Health Insurance to be Consistent with the Goals of the ADA --***The current focus on health reform, community living, and enforcement of the Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C. primarily focuses on public health benefits, Medicaid, in particular. However, little attention is being paid to the extent to which private health insurers structure health benefits in ways that interfere with an individual’s right to live in the community. Private health policies often contain exclusions or restrictions on the types of services most needed by people with disabilities, and have an institutional bias – covering services if an individual lives in a nursing home or rehabilitation facility, but not covering the services in the individual’s home. Many private insurance plans fail to adequately cover rehabilitation and habilitation services and devices; and mental health and substance use disorders, including behavioral health treatment. 

According to the Institute of Medicine, habilitation, mental health, substance abuse and behavioral services have largely been left to the public sector to provide and fund at taxpayers’ expense. For example, many private plans fail to cover, or place unrealistic restrictions on, durable medical equipment and limit prosthetic limbs to one per lifetime.  In addition, many private plans only cover therapies to the extent that they result in progress toward recovery – thereby discriminating against people with permanent disabilities who need therapies to maintain functioning or prevent deterioration of functioning, such as people with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, or people who need psychiatric rehabilitation.  Most private plans do not cover hearing aids or low vision aids and avoids covering services for children with autism or intellectual disabilities through use of a definition of “medical necessity” that applies only to restoration of function. 

Such benefit limitations have a disproportionate detrimental effect on people with disabilities that go far beyond a negative impact on health.  The impact is so extreme that many people with disabilities cannot work because employer-sponsored health insurance is inadequate compared with the benefits they can receive from Medicaid.  Private insurance limitations and exclusions force some people who would rather be at home into more costly institutions; placing further strain on cash strapped public programs.  This is in direct contravention to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Olmstead decision and generally-accepted principles of community living and inclusion.  The private insurance market is in need of significant reforms if people with disabilities are to participate equally in private health insurance.  The purpose of this potential project is to analyze the policies of the 20 largest private health insurers and document the contract provisions that are inconsistent with the goals of the ADA, the Olmstead decision and the Administration on Community Living (ACL) initiatives.  Furthermore, the analysis could include specifics such as spotlighting the practices of the private insurance market that have the intent or effect of discriminating against individuals with disabilities.  The Council will dedicate $50,000 to this project.

***ELL & IDEA***

Research indicates that students of color with limited use of English sometimes get mislabeled as disabled rather than receive appropriate services as English Language Learners.  However, there are students who are both students with disabilities and English Language Learners.  The purpose of this project would be to look into what are the challenges facing this population and what are the barriers in accessing programs and services that could meet their needs, and what (if any) best practices exist in ensuring their academic, social, and occupational success.  This would also look at how Centers for Independent Living, Protection and Advocacy Organizations, Parent Training and Information Centers, engage with families of children with disabilities who also have limited English proficiency.  This project would include formal recommendations for inclusion in upcoming reauthorizations of IDEA and ESEA.  

***ADA Scorecard***

As a follow up to the 2015 Annual Report to Congress, NCD will roll out a series of state-focused fact sheets that individuals with disabilities, state and local organizations and members of Congress can utilize when looking at ways to improve access to programs and services for individuals with disabilities.  This fulfills NCD’s goal of reimaging its Progress Report to increase its value to the general public while at the same time highlighting groundbreaking work the Council is engaging in to improve the lives of people with disabilities. 

***Social Media Dialogue on Voting***

With 2016 being an election year, and building off of NCD’s existing body of work tied to the voting rights of people with disabilities, the Council will utilize its social media capacity and host 3 dialogues tied to ongoing physical barriers, attitudes, technological gaps, legislative hurdles, and polling place practices encountered by voters with disabilities. 

***Congressional Forums***

NCD has made use of its statutory authority to receive testimony by hosting congressional forums on the topics of the federal budget, voting, and parenting rights. In FY16, the Council intends to continue utilizing this authority to host at least one congressional forum, likely tied to the topic of one of its recent reports, taking into consideration the interests of NCD’s stakeholders and the focus of Congress at the time. 

The financial section presents the message from the Executive Director, followed by the independent auditor’s report and the financial statements with accompanying notes. Discussion of the financial statements, financial position and results of operations can be found in Management Discussion and Analysis Section.

**Message from the Executive Director**

I am pleased to report that the National Council on Disability earned an unqualified audit opinion on its consolidated financial statements. We have spent much of FY2014 working to remedy the issues noted in our FY2013 audit and to enact appropriate general and entity level controls over our integrity and security of our financial and administrative operations.  

Following the close of FY2014 the Council started taking progressive action to address the findings of the FY2013 audit.  We viewed our response to the findings as an opportunity to fundamentally correct deficiencies common to small, independent federal entities.  Our goal continues to be to ensure formal checkpoints and controls to identify failures and deficiencies in advance of adverse outcomes.  We have developed a streamlined system to ensure efficient and documented processing of invoices and vouchers among our Administration and Finance team members. The goal of this is twofold: to create transparency and to ensure every team members is aware of their and others responsibilities and who the necessary back-ups are. Regular communications between financial staff, the Chairperson, Executive Director, and Finance Committee chair are essential to providing the level of transparency that ensures continuity of operations.   We continue to work to ensure NCD’s Information Technology systems and equipment include the formulation of appropriate procedures and controls throughout. In sum, our goal, as detailed in our Management Letter Comments, is to increase the transparency, accountability, and reliability of our financial and operations systems as we move through FY2015. 

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of the Council and the entire staff that made our financial management a priority during FY 2014. We are all a dedicated to ensuring the development of stronger controls in the future to maintain our commitment to quality financial management.

Rebecca Cokley

Executive Director

**

# Appendix A – Listing of Abbreviations and Acronyms

ADAAmericans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended

AICPAAmerican Institute of Certified Public Accountants

ATDAAccountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002

CFOChief Financial Officer

CFRCode of Federal Regulations

CSRSCivil Service Retirement System

DOLDepartment of Labor

EDExecutive Director

ESEAElementary and Secondary Education Act

FASABFederal Accounting Standards Advisory Board

FBWTFund Balance with Treasury

FECAFederal Employees Compensation Act

FERSFederal Employees’ Retirement System

FFMIAFederal Financial Management Improvement Act

FICAFederal Insurance Contribution Act

FISMAFederal Information Security Management Act

FMFIAFederal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act

FOIAFreedom of Information Act

FTEFull-time Equivalent

FYFiscal Year

GAAPGenerally Accepted Accounting Principles

GAOGovernment Accountability Office

GPRAGovernment Performance and Results Act

GSAGeneral Services Administration

IPIAImproper Payments Information Act

ITInformation Technology

MD&AManagement’s Discussion and Analysis

NCDNational Council on Disability

NCLBANo Child Left Behind Act reauthorization

OMBOffice of Management and Budget

OPM****Office of Personnel Management

PP&EProperty, Plant and Equipment

PARPerformance and Accountability Report

SASStatement on Auditing Standards

SBRStatement of Budgetary Resources

SFFASStatement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards

SNC****Statement of Net Cost

TSPThrift Savings Plan

UDOUndelivered Orders

USCUnited States Code

� The publication can be found on the National Council website at the following link: � HYPERLINK "http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/20130315/" �http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/20130315/�

� The publication can be found on the National Council website at the following link: � HYPERLINK "http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/20130315/" �http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/20130315/�

� The publication can be found on the National Council website at the following link: � HYPERLINK "http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/20130315/" �http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/20130315/�

� Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999).

�� Institute of Medicine, “Essential Health Benefits:  Balancing Coverage and Cost” p. 108, (Oct. 2011).

� Institute of Medicine, “Essential Health Benefits:  Balancing Coverage and Cost,” p. 131.

�